With no permanent collection or historical record, the Contemporary Jewish Museum is unlike any other Jewish museum in the world. But one of the exhibit "Being Jewish: a Bay Area portrait" consists of a collage of photographs and objects that were sent in by Bay Area Jews.Photo taken in San Francisco Friday June 6, 2008 By Lance Iversen / The Chronicle.

Photo: Lance Iversen, San Francisco Chronicle

With no permanent collection or historical record, the Contemporary...

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With no permanent collection or historical record, the Contemporary Jewish Museum is unlike any other Jewish museum in the world. But one of the exhibit "Being Jewish: a Bay Area portrait" consists of a collage of photographs and objects that were sent in by Bay Area Jews.Photo taken in San Francisco Friday June 6, 2008 By Lance Iversen / The Chronicle.

Photo: Lance Iversen, San Francisco Chronicle

With no permanent collection or historical record, the Contemporary...

When the Contemporary Jewish Museum opens Sunday, it won't try to document history. Instead, it will seek to create new expressions of a culture that has flourished in the Bay Area.

Unlike any Jewish museum in the world, the museum will hold no permanent collection of Judaica, nor will it attempt to create a formal record of the region's Jews. Instead, the museum will present an array of continuously changing exhibitions that use music, art, dance and other mediums to give evolving expression to Jewish identity.

That vision testifies to the unique nature of the Bay Area's Jewish history. Unlike members of Jewish cultures in other parts of the world, the Bay Area's Jews - young, prosperous and pioneering - flourished alongside the other immigrants of the Gold Rush era.

The names of its early settlers define institutions across the Bay Area, such as Levi Strauss and his descendants in the Haas family. They include secular institutions like the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, Stern Grove and Zellerbach Hall. The region's politicians have ranged from San Francisco Mayor Adolph Sutro, who served from 1894 to '96, to both California's current U.S. senators, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer.

"The story of San Francisco Jews is triumphant," said Marc Dollinger, a San Francisco State professor of Jewish studies, co-editor of the book "California Jews," and fifth-generation San Franciscan. "San Francisco has been one of the most open civic cultures to the Jewish community in the United States."

Jewish museums around the world typically testify to survival, flight from persecution and lives of exile. Those institutions preserve histories that could easily be forgotten or erased. The Judah L. Magnes Museum in Berkeley, though modest in size, holds a well-regarded collection of Jewish history in the American West.

But the Contemporary Jewish Museum will be an expression not so much of the past as of possibility.

One of the opening exhibits, for example, asked seven artists to explore the modern relevance of the creation story in the first chapter of Genesis. In the "yud" gallery, musicians have been tasked to interpret the Hebrew alphabet through music - and the sound of their work is the only thing "on display." Another gallery speaks to the life and work of cartoonist William Steig, a Jew who worked at the New Yorker and also created the cartoon and movie character Shrek.

Given the diversity of religious practice within the Jewish community, particularly in the Bay Area, the museum is aware that not all might identify with the museum's vision.

"We have non-Jewish artists commenting on Genesis," said Daniel Schifrin, the museum's director of public programs. "That may be complicated for some people."

The Jewish holiday of Shavuot, marking the day Jews believe the Torah was given to them, is celebrated by an entire night of study. It begins Sunday, but the museum is doing its own version, mixing ritual with music performances, dancing, lectures as well as spoken word and comedy acts, at a sold-out event tonight.

"Tradition and history in isolation does not connect to our daily lives," said Connie Wolf, the museum director. "What you want is to not be thinking about history and tradition as something over there, but you want to be engaged with how does it impact us. How can we strive to make the world a better place?"

What such expressions of Jewish life mean elicits varied interpretations.

Rabbi Peretz Wolf-Prusan at Temple Emanu-El sees the building as a major public affirmation of Jewish identity and culture. He believes there was a caveat to the success of earlier generations of the region's Jews - to not be too loud about one's Jewish identity. A 63,000-square-foot building in the center of San Francisco's vibrant cultural scene is a very different statement.

"I think we're in a very different place now," said Wolf-Prusan, who referred to the museum as a "coming out" of the Jewish community. "We're unafraid to share not just our past, but what our present is. ... This is a place of experimentation and innovation - a place of thought."

John Rothmann, 59, a descendant of the Haas family and a fourth-generation San Franciscan, sees the building as yet another expression of a San Francisco culture that has encouraged a wide array of cultures to build their own ethnic institutions. In recent years, that's included the openings of the Museum of the African Diaspora and the Asian Art Museum, as well as talk of a Mexican Museum.

"What made this city a success is that everybody came at the same time in 1850. ... They built this city on the idea of diversity," he said. "There was always tremendous ethnic affirmation. What we are seeing now with the development of ethnic museums is the ability for communities to bring that expression, that component into the life of the Bay Area."

The Contemporary Jewish Museum

The museum opens at 11 a.m. Sunday, but the free opening-day tickets are running out fast (available via the Web site). There are three opening exhibitions:

Being Jewish: The museum invited the Bay Area's Jewish community to send in photographs about "being Jewish in the Bay Area." The highly varied selection is mixed in with a display of contemporary, historical and traditional objects reflecting Jewish holidays, events and rituals.

John Zorn presents the Aleph-Bet Sound Project: Original work by musicians such as Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson explores the ancient Hebrew alphabet through music in the majestic "yud"

gallery.

In the Beginning: Artists Respond to Genesis: Artists using mediums as varied as computer animation and wall drawings are presented alongside historical works, such as medieval texts, to depict the continuing relevance of the Bible's original story.

For more information about the museum, go to www.thecjm.orgor call (415) 655-7800.